“Laura, this isn’t love. Love lets you go on a trip without following you. Love can live without you for a week, knowing you’ll come back.”No, it can’t.’ The afternoon shadows grew long and cold. In spite of the chill, a heat rose up inside her and flooded her face. ‘That’s how you know it’s true love. When he can’t live without you.’Karen shook her head. ‘That’s how you know it’s obsession. Or something else.”
— Natalie Standiford
“But why? Why do you care about our class’s history?” “I just do. Besides, I need something to put on my art-school applications besides ’Locks self in room and draws all day.’ Even art schools won’t take a psychopath.”
— Natalie Standiford
“I think ghostliness is a good quality. I pretend I’m dead all the time.” “What?” He stopped rummaging through his locker to look at me full in the face a last.”It helps me go to sleep,” I said.”That shows you don’t know anything about death,” Jonah said.”Do you?” I asked. He hesitated before saying “I’m a g-g-g-ghost, aren’t I?” “I think being dead might be nice. Restful.””Death is not restful. It’s nothing.””That’s what seems restful to me,” I said. “The nothing. Not being here. Not being anywhere.”
— Natalie Standiford
“I might have been made of metal once, but not anymore. Like Pinocchio, I’d turned into a real girl. So far it sucked. But there was nothing I could do about it.”
— Natalie Standiford
“The students adore your father,’ a perfumed woman said to me. ‘Aren’t you lucky to live with such a charming man!”He’s even more charming at home,’ Mom said. ‘Isn’t he, Bea? He rides a unicycle through the house -”- even up and down the stairs,’ I added.’He juggles eggs as he makes breakfast every morning -”- which he serves to us in bed of course,’ I said.’- and pulls fragrant bouquets out of his ass,’ Mom finished.’He’s just a joy.”
— Natalie Standiford
“She decided that day to study Russian, the language of violence, terror, and absurdity. She knew she would never be bored.”
— Natalie Standiford
“What else could have happened? Car wouldn’t start? House caught on fire? Escaped convict climbed through his bedroom window and tied him with duct tape? Poison eggnog? Or maybe I just didn’t matter to him.”
— Natalie Standiford
“If you’d only let me come by myself, none of this would have happened. Having you around makes everything worse.’She buried her head under her pillow. ‘Stop it! you’re so cold! You’re heartless, you little robot!’ The pillow muffled her words, but they still”
— Natalie Standiford
“its more a trance, jonah said. the whole world is pressing in on me, like a weight on my chest, slowly pushing me down ans down. and there’s nothing between me and this weight but my flimsy skin. Its not enough. It won’t protect me. It doesn’t keep anything out. The outside will keep pressing until my ribs are crushed.”
— Natalie Standiford
“I didn’t want to die. I just found death soothing to think about.”
— Natalie Standiford
“No amount of wishing will bring back the dead.”
— Natalie Standiford